Christmas Present

Well this Christmas I got some nice gifts. The biggest of which is my new bike. Mom was very nice and sent me a gift certificate to Walmart so I could try out the bikes there and get one tat suited me. As you can see I got a nice one. Its comfortable and lighter than my old bike.

Melissa got me a bunch of cube world people blocks. Each block is about an inch and a half square and has one digital stick person on it. The people each have their own actions, for example one is a cleaner, one has a pet, one has a ball. They all have a bunch of animations involving their own actions. The neat thing is when you place them next to each other (all four sides) they interact with each other. They climb into each others cubes and its just a fun little thing to watch and waste a few moments. I have them all at work and they keep me company during the day.

Update

I know I have been slacking with posting here... No real excuse for it, I know. Things have gotten a little festive in Hawaii. As you can see the state is putting up the Christmas decorations. They are interesting when compared to the decorations back in Pittsburgh. Santa giving a Shaka and wearing slippers :-)



This past week as been fun for me. I had a leak in my bedroom again, second time this year. it seems all the pipes for upstairs are right over my room. I had to take down all my stuff and they had to cut a hole in the ceiling to fix it. This should be the last time they have to do this as now both bathrooms upstairs have been fixed! I'm going to take the opportunity and try to paint my room while its all apart. At least get a little good out of the mess.

Fun Night Out

Last night was a lot of fun. Some of us from work got together for a little BBQ at Ku'uipo's house. We had steak, chicken, rise, chilly, salad, cookies, pie, cake and ice cream. Afterwards we hung out an talked for a bit. Some started to play the piano too, you can see Ku'uipo and Sterling in the picture playing and Chris in the background. It was a nice relaxing start to the evening. Ku'uipo and her family (all 12 including herself) are very nice.

After the BBQ some of us headed out to a club in town. Sterling, had his birthday party there. I ended up playing darts for a good part of the night with Shannon and her friend. It was a relaxing night. We all needed it too. Work has been no fun at all. its basically been lots of meeting and preparing to run through a disaster scenario on Tuesday.... We are really not ready for it. We stayed at the club till about 2AM when they closed for the night. Shannon gave me a ride back to my bike and I headed home.

New Look

So as you can see I've been working on how things look. Most of it is done, I know that I need to fix up viewing comments still. Let me know what you think about it. As well as the new look I've been putting together the rest of my site. Not all the photos are up and not the Family page isn't done but I think its a good start.

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Some departments at work really went all out. There was a haunted house, a haunted hospital and a haunted pirate ship. IT didn't do much cause we were all overly busy, but I think we are planning something for Christmas.

At night Melissa, Kari and myself dressed up and walked around Waikiki. We were all dressed up as gangsters. It looks kinda cool with up all done up. After walking around for a bit we went to a club and had a few drinks. All in all I think it was a good night. I have some pictures from my phone but I'm waiting on more from Melissa.

Back in Hawaii

Its good to be back in Hawaii. This weeks has been busy at work, lots of meeting for a bunch of process management stuff. I've been assigned to the BCP Infrastructure team. We are working on the who what how of how to get the business going again after a disaster of some scale. It's interesting but its lots of meetings an a lot of work and not sure what the outcome will be. It's defiantly not programming... It's not even really IT related...

Outside of work its been fun. Chris and I are working on a bit of a programming project to keep our skills up and have some fun. I've been riding my bike around too, just enjoying Hawaii while listening to a audio book. I'm listening to The Sword of Shannara at the moment. Alisha, the granddaughter of a friend of my mother moves here recently. I wasn't on island at the time so I couldn't do a greeting at the airport but I met up with her and har new husband the other day. We said a quick hello and I gave them a little welcome gift. They both seem to be very nice people. It would be nice to meet up with them again.

San Diago

I'm in San Diago taking a class for work. Most of the stuff I know but
there are the one or two new thing I'm hoping to pick up.

While I'm here I want to try and get to the zoo while I'm here but not
sure if I'll have time. If we get out early one day I'm gonna try.

For now, I'm having my coffee and relaxing for 10 min. before class
starts. Its nice seeing different sights but I miss Hawaii!

Sent from my iPhone
~ Justin
~ 808 221-8336

Fun Times

Well, things have been good with me. Not a lot going on but thats ok for the moment. I had dinner with Melissa and Keri the other night which was very nice. We has sushi and miso soup. It was nice to see them both for awhile. After dinner we went and walked around Sports Authority for a bit. When we were leaving I found I had a flat tire so they were very nice and gave me a ride home.

I fixed up my tire the next day after work and all is well. Last night I went and say Dragon Wars at the theater. It was an interesting movie. The plot was great, the special effects were awesome but the storyline sucked. They jumped around a lot in the beginning and skimmed over a lot. The end was interesting too... If you watch it, where exactly does the end of the movie take place? How does he get home? just odd... It could have been a really good movie but its lacking.

Today I'm off for a bit. Gonna grab lunch and ride my bike around. I got $100 dollars Apple store credit cause I bought my iPhone early so I'm going to stop and see what I wanna get. I picked up 3 audio book from iTunes. They were all on sale, well that or price dropped, from what I've seen them before. I got Eragon, The Restaurant At the End of the Universe and The Golden Compas. Should give me a few months of listening/reading :-)

Tomorrow I'm going in to work to help out. There is a meeting I'm going to help facilitate. Originally they thought there would be maybe 20 people attending but it turned into 80. It more Project Management stuff but sense my department has been through it already I'm helping out. I get a "float" day to take at another time, but who knows when that will be :-/

Long Day

Its been a long couple of days. I've had a head cold which has made things a little blah... Now mix that with a lot of meetings at work and  you have my life for the past 3 days. Lots of fun huh? Its not all bad, I get to have my coffee in the morning and enjoy the wonderful weather :-) I people watch and listen to one of my audiobooks on my iPhone. I'm listening to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy at the moment.

After work isn't bad either. I've been trying to organize some stuff on my computer and I'm still learning all that it can do. I'm playing with iMovie and iDVD from the iLife package. The two pieces of software let me make movies out of pictures or video clips and then organize them into a DVD that will play in a standard DVD player. I also got Skype installed recently. I knew about it, and had used it, but that was YEARS ago and boy has it gotten better. I can talk to my dad over the internet and it sounds just like on the phone, if not better. And we get live video too!

Hello :- )

Well, not much going on at the moment. I've been going to a tun of meetings at work. Lots of projects going on, not much in the line of programming though. Kinda a pain actually. Just lots of work that isn't really what I want to be doing.

I've got dinner plans tomorrow though. It should be a good time. I'm meeting up with Melissa and Kari. Not sure where we will go but anyplace is just fine. I got a letter from Tera the other day. She seems to be having a good time in Gambia. Learning a lot about the culture and the language. Jamie graduated her officer training and is on her way to getting a private pilots licensee. The government pays for the training, but its up to Jamie to get it all done. Anastasia emailed me the other day, I need to email her back. I'll be doing that as soon as I'm done here. I've tried calling her but it just hasn't worked out...

I talked to Holly a bit the other day with some text messages. I've kinda slacked with the friends in PA this last little bit. I need to give Chrissie, Holly and Stacy a call to see how they are all doing. 

As for now, I'm making dinner - a steak - and gonna eat soon. After that a bit of TV and probably bed :-)

Dinner and Catching Up

Its been a few weeks sense I got to see Melissa, her family was in town and we were both a bit busy. But the good news is I got to see her tonight. We went and saw The Simpsons Movie and grab dinner. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory. We had a lot of little and some big things to catch up on so it made for a really nice evening. 

Update

Its been awhile sense I posted, but not a lot has happened. I'm
finishing up a big project at work. We are transitioning a lot of
little tasks from IT back to their rightful owners. You would think
that of would be easy but some people just don't want to do their own
work.

Regardless, its just about done. We have our last meeting with
everyone together. Its a lessons learned meeting. After this meeting
then all the other groups have all their tasks back for good.

As for fun stuff, not sure what's going on this weekend. Melissa is on
another island with her visiting family. Jamie is just about done with
her I'm hoping to meet up with some friends on Monday and I want to
catch a movie too.

Sent from my iPhone
~ Justin
~ 808 221-8336

Melissa's Art Show

I went on a break from reading to visit Melissa at her show. All the work she has put into her students really shows. The different projects she had them work on this semester all had a theme that works well together. There are the spaceships, the paintings, the aliens and the planet surface :-) She really did a good job tying all the pieces together at the show.

2 Days

I got home from buying the last of the Harry Potter books and I started to read. I got in two chapters before I fell asleep. Saturday when I woke up I started reading again... The book is very well done, just makes you want to keep turning the page... In my opinion this is the darkest of the books, but it really had to be. I read a little over a quarter of the book before taking a break during the afternoon. I went up to se Melissa's art show from her classes.

After I got home from the art show I started reading again, finished a bit past the half way point before heading to bed again. Today I kinda read the whole day. Just finished the book about a min. ago. The completed story, 7 books, finishes out nicely. There are no questions left open in regards to Harry's story, in fact question remaining from the very first book have been answered. 

Questions about life after are given a small epilog. It was nice to that little glimpse of life after everything that had happened. I would have liked to know more though, in that regards it left me wanting more about the characters futures and their lives. I guess its just I wish it was not all over. I'll miss the anticipation of more to come. I can say that I will read the 7 books over and over again.

The Book

So I got my book and I just got home. Time for a few hours reading :-)

Sent from my iPhone
~ Justin
~ 808 221-8336

Harry Potter --- The last book

I'm at borders book waiting to get my book :-) Thee hours to go!

Sent from my iPhone
~ Justin
~ 808 221-8336

Dinner With Melissa

> So I had dinner with Melissa tonight. As always I had an awsome
> time. It was nice to catch up on the week's happenings and to just
> talk for a bit. We is always a true angel to be around.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> ~ Justin

Me at Dinner

Melissa at Dinner

My Weekend

So I had a good weekend. Sunday I went to lunch with my housemate, was
a good time, we went to Rayn's at Ward. He suggested going to the
beach, a little one with a place to jump off the rocks. When we got
there there were a run if people. He went in for a bit but we desided
on a hike. We went down along the ocean, over the holders and along
some little ledges. We finally went up the side of the mountain. Next
time I go I'm going to have to bring a camera.... or my iPhone.

It was a fun hike. Next weekend will be exciting too! The last if the
Harry Potter books comes out. I took two days off to read it over a
nice four day weekend.

Sent from my iPhone

Harry Potter

So there is a huge line at 7... The movie starts at midnight! I'd be
in line myself if I wasn't a member of the concierge service. Ivw had
my tickets for a few days now and my seat is reserved. I get to just
walk right in :-)

Sent from my iPhone :-)
~Justin

Class

The past two days I've been at a PMP class. Its been informative but
not slot of fun. The next two weeks I'm going to a study group then
I'm going to try and take the exam. It would make for a nice career
building addition to my education.

Sent from my iPhone :-)
~Justin

Hair Cut

So I had a little extra time this morning and so I got mr hair cut.
Was about time too, way to long sense my last one.

Sent from my iPhone

4th of July

So I went to breakfast with my housemate Cortland. We went to Zippys and had ourselves a couple of omlets. I thobk thats the first time we've done that. The rest of the day I've relaxed and have enjoyed not working.

Tonight is fireworks, they are all over the island. My landlord has invited me to celebrate with his family so thats my plans.

Melissa just called :-) Its always nice to hear from her. She is out  with her friends tonight. Doing an errand at the moment, hoping to get to fireworks on time.

Not a whole lot else has been going on, I'm enjoying my iPhone and learning how to use everything of has on it. For instance, email... Makes foe better postings to the blog. I got back in touch with Kelli form back in pittsburgh, we've talked a few times. Been taking on and
off with Holly and Chrissie too. Its been awhile sense I've talked with Stacey, but thats my fault... I need to call her this weekend.

Sent from my iPhone ;-)

Yay

New phone and computer side by side. =)

iPhone

I'm waiting go kind for my iPhone at a AT&T store.

Dinner

Dinner with Melissa. Seeing her just makes my week. She really is the best friend anyone could ask for.

My Week

Not my usual morning spot... I have classes this week at the Ala Moana branch. I'm learning alll about being a project manager and the processes involved. Its interesting and makes for a fast week. We are talking about setting up a study group so we can get our PMP certification. Project Management Professional in case you were wondering...

Sunset

I'm down at Aloha Tower meeting Melissa for dinner. Its just sunset, not sure if you can see it in this picture but the sun just went behind the clouds.

MacBook Pro

So I bought a MacBook Pro. I also got the AppleCare plan some keyboard protector and a iPod dock. Grand total of $3,367.33 after my student discount. My luck... good! It didn't start to rain till I got home.

Apple

The Apple store is a good place to put things on a credit card. I need a new laptop as mine has hardware problems, USB ports aren't working and the screen is starting to burn in...

My Card

I got my first new VISA case in years. Now I can build my credit back.

Good Morning

Another nice morning go Hawaii :-) I'm haveimg my coffee them off to work. Sorry I've been slacking a bit with my postings. Works been ok, life's a bit dull - all thee friends have left. Fun eh? I've good to dinner with Melissa and I went once with Hanna. They were both good times, I like the talking. No plans for the weekend but i got a few days to figure something out :-P

The Week

I'm having my moroning coffee before heading off to work. Its been a good week so far. Melissa and I got together the other night to pickup a camera for Jamie, grab a bite to eat and to talk for a few hours. It was nice to catch up and hang out. Melissa is always a pleasure to be around and has such a big heart. Other than that I've been working, dealing with my credit report and riding my bike.

Rain

See, not every day in Hawaii is a nice bright sunny one. Its been raining on and off for awhile now. Makes for a blah kinda day.

Monday Afternoon

I'm sitting outside of Starbucks having a Zen ice tea relaxing a bit. I went to breakfast with Anastasia this morning. We had to say our goodbyes :-( She leaves tomorrow morning. I'm going to miss her a lot. But at least there is email and phone calls. I'm meeting up with Melissa around 7 tonight to grab a coffee and to do a little shopping. Other than that I'm riding my bike and enjoying the day.

Jamie

Jamie just called me for a nice half hour talk before she went to bed. She really is sounding much much better after her second week. It seems she can not check her civilian email or check out my blog so I'll have to send stuff to her military address. I can understand in a way about that policy but it makes it a little harder to keep in touch.

She has been very busy with all the OTS stuff. From what I gather she has the physical training in the morning then lunch and a quick shower. From there she goes to her classes which are leadership related - Team Building, Giving a Briefing, Dealing With Harassment, etc. At night she has a quick dinner and "free" time. That basically equates to laundry, cleaning, chores (cleaning the class rooms), studying, maybe a quick phone call, then sleep. I asked if she got any "me time" or down time or something, the answer... I listen to music while folding cloths. At least its something :-)

I am tremendously proud of Jamie. She is taking a hard situation that many people won't or can't deal with and is making it through. She is taking things week by week and working it out. The first week she was depressed - you could tell it in her voice - this week she is back to her normal self. Its amazing the difference in her voice...

I can't wait to see her again though and it won't be nearly soon enough :-(

New Pcitures

Well I got around to putting some new pictures online. The link on the right Cell Phone Pictures has been updated. There are over 100 photos. They are from my cell phone camera or from friend's cell phones so they may not be the best pictures in the world, sorry. I'm working on getting the rest of the Hawaii 2007 photos together and online, my family just took way to many :-)

Dinner Time.

I'm having dinner with Anastasia. Its really nice, I haven't seen her in a good while. We got to catch up on things. I'm gonna miss her when she leaves...

30 Years Old

Well, I'm 30. Not a big deal I guess, but its a new decade of existence. I got phone calls from a bunch of friends and family and got to catch up with them all. I went and saw Shrek the Third too. I would recommend it, very enjoyable. The longest talk I had was with Jamie. It has been a week sense she has been in the Air Force OTS program. It was really good to hear her voice and know she is doing OK. Miss her a lot. Melissa gave me my gift before she left for the week, two very nice new shirts. I miss her too, but she'll be back next weekend so its not to bad. I'm going to see Anastasia tomorrow for dinner. We haven't had a chance to hand out for awhile so I'm looking forward to it. She will be leaving the island in a couple of weeks. Other than that it has been a relaxing weekend.

Coffee

I'm out having coffee with Melissa and Kari. We were going to do a movie but it got a little late. Don't she look cute? She just won't admit it.

Monday

Well, today has been a kinda blah day with the exception of dinner. I've been thinking about Jamie leaving and my other friends to soon be leaving. It's going to be lonely around here. I really don't know what i would do if Melissa had left to. Thankfully she is not!!

An End and A Begining

So Jamie is at the airport. We have all said our goodbyes even though its not a goodbye but a until next time we meet. Its hard, she was my first good friend here and my first to leave. We'll keep go touch, but she will be missed, a lot, every day. I'm prove me her though. This is a big step into the next part of her life. Love her bunches.

Cutie Cutie Cutie Cutie Cutie

She is just an angle aint she? Between Melissa and Jamie Ive got two awesome friends. She is gonna be really really really missed. Im happy for her and support her but, hell, Im gonna miss her a lot! Its homa suck without her! Without Anastasia. Without Tara. Jamie has been a good friend and I know we will be for a long long time. Just gonna have to get used to her not being here. Loves her lots!!

Dinner Time

We went to Harbor Pub for dinner. We are meeting up with Jamie in a bit.

The Big Move

Well today was moving day. Most of Jamie's furniture is headed over to her sister's place. We started the move at 930 this morning and finished up in the early afternoon. After it was all done and the Uhaul truck was returned we cleaned ourselves up and headed to lunch and a movie. We had a bit of time to kill in between so we played shuffle puck at D&B. It made for a fun day all around.

Saturday Dinner

We all had plans to head out and go dancing tonight but everyone was a bit blah. We have a big move tomorrow and it probably wouldn't have been good if we did. Jamie stayed in to relax with her mom, Melissa and I headed to dinner instead. We went to Outback Steakhouse and had pupu's for dinner. It was nice to hang out with her for awhile and to cathai up on life. I always have fun with Melissa.

First Friday

Its Friday night and Tara invited of out. We met up with one of her friends and headed to see the HPU corous sing and listen to some music. It was very nice. After we headed to grab a bite to eat at a Chinese place and to talk for a bit. Tara is getting excited to go to The Gambia with the Peace Core. I'm going to miss her when she leaves. No phone to call her either, just old fashioned letters.

Poetry Slam

A bunch of us are at Poetry Slam tonight. Its Jamie's last one before she leaves. It sucks and is getting sadder and sadder each day... But tonight, fun :-)

Dinner Time

Sunday Good Times

I spent the day with Jamie. We went to lunch at Compadres then caught a movie, Next. After that we went to the mall and did alot of shopping for her move and the Air Force. We just got shoes left to buy. She took me to Shokudo for dinner and now we are headed home. Jamie's gonna read some Harry Potter and I'm gonna watch a show and then our respective beds for us both. Was a great day all around.

Friends and Last Times

So its all dark and fuzzy but its Melissa and Jamie. Its our last time at Detox before Jamie leaves. I have to say I support her and wish her the best but it luck and I'm gonna miss her more than anything. Its hard to tell in the picture but both of them are drop dead gorges. I know thats probably spelled wrong but the bottom line is they are both beautiful and i love them both very much.

Seconds Class Citizen

As a concerned citizen of Honolulu Hawaii i have some questions. I have been stopped twice by the police over the past year in regards to riding my bike. First in Waikiki while on a side walk. I knew the law but was riding on the sidewalk for my own safety. Second in the city of Honolulu for riding on the sidewalk not knowing the law. After being stopped in Waikiki I was told by the officer to ride on the road until I was outside of the limits of Waikiki and then I could resume riding my bike on the sidewalk. This caused the second situation to occur.

I ride on the sidewalk because I am not a motor vehicle. I ride on the sidewalk because I do not have a large amount of steel surrounding my body for protection. I ride the sidewalk because the other vehicles on the road do not consider me road worthy.

Sense the first incident I ride my bike on the road in Waikiki. During this past year I have been side-swiped by 2 city buses, 3 cab and 2 cars that apparently were not paying attention. Luckily in all cases I was not injured beyond busing. This does not count the hundreds of times that I have been cutoff by drivers passing me and making a right turn or by drivers pulling out right in front of me. I decided to lookup the laws today after being stopped for the second time. According to http://www.honolulupd.org/community/traffic/bikelaws.htm Hawaii Traffic Code 291C-141 to 291C-146 pertain to bikers. Specifically 291C-145(a) says:

"Every person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at such time shall ride as near to the right-hand curb, on the edge of the roadway, or the shoulder off the roadway as practicable, exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction."

So I am a second class citizen with no place to go. The law literally pushing me into the cutter. The law is forcing me to be placed in harm way. So I have to ask myself why the law is the way it is. Well the only thing i can think of is that the government would like to "protect" pedestrians on the sidewalks. Well I have never buzzed by people walking. I have always given walkers the right-of-way as I have more control and speed than them. Its not the law that I have to do this, but it makes sense to me when I ride on the sidewalk. Unfortunately it is the law that I ride in the gutter and unfortunately motor vehicles do not give me the same consideration I have the pedestrians on the sidewalk.

So now my dilemma. I can either ride my bike on the sidewalk and break the law, hoping not to get caught or ride in the gutter and pray I'm not killed by a multi-tun steel encased vehicle. If I do break the law and ride on the sidewalks I can either pay the fine or not and goto court when I get caught.

So my solutions to the situation are as follows:

1) Allow bikers on the sidewalks with laws giving pedestrians the right-of-way
2) Allow bikers in the middle of the lane riding at our much slower speeds
3) Put in bike lanes everywhere on ever road

Night Stop

So I stopped over to see Jamie. I brought her the leftovers from dinner. She doesn't like to cook for just one so I thought I would use it as an excuse to say hi :-) We watched the end of Harry Potter and she was practicing her pushups. Was fun to chat a bit after the end of the movie. I called to see if I could catch Melissa on the way home for a quick hello, but she was out.

Dinner Time

Early dinner at a P.F. Chang's. Some new place at Ward. We saw a interesting movie, Perfect Stranger. If you see it you will be wrong in your assumptions about who dunn it.

Melissa's House

Jamie drums and Melissa brushes :-)